When will the pandemic end, according to the WHO?

As the world moves forward with the vaccination plan to end the pandemic that erupted over a year ago in Wuhan, China, and at a time when some countries are already seeing a return to normality before Covid- 19, the World Health Organization warned that the health crisis will only end when at least 70% of the population has received the vaccine against the virus.

“The pandemic will be over once we reach at least 70% vaccination”Hans Kluge, WHO director for Europe, told AFP.

In this sense, he underlined the low percentage of vaccinations recorded in the old continent and alerted by new variants detected in the region. “We know, for example, that B.1617 (initially identified in India) is more contagious than B.117 (identified in the United Kingdom), which was already more contagious than the previous strain,” he explained.

However, in a more optimistic tone, he recalled that vaccines, so far they have been shown to be effective against these variants. But he again insisted on the need to speed up the vaccination plan because, he said, this pandemic lasts “longer than expected”.